Adtran just released earnings for the third quarter and the good news is they were 4% greater than a year ago. For the year, Adtran is ahead by by 11%. The company has also declared a quarterly dividend of nine cents per common share.

What does this news mean to the communications sector? Well, it is obviously positive and bodes well for how the communications and tech spaces can do as things slow down.

As you recall, the last 60 days or so have seen major global economic problems and to be able to beat last year's earnings in such a tumultuous environment is a great accomplishment.

This positive communications news follows up on the recent news that AudioCodes has reaffirmed their yearly guidance.

It is difficult to predict what the next few quarters will look like but it seems a number of the companies in the communications and tech space are pretty well-prepared for a potential slow-down in the general economy.

With the ability to boost productivity and lower costs, communications and technology can really help companies get through a slower economy without the need to cut heads.

Some months back I was invited to be the video reporter at the Telx CBX event which took place in Brooklyn, NY. You have likely already read my CBX blog posts but I neglected to post the video interviews themselves. They have been on YouTube for a number of months but now you have an easy reference with links to all of them:

As a major supporter of open source -- especially in the communications market, I cannot be more thrilled to announce that Digium will be co-hosting Digium/Asterisk World at ITEXPO this February in Miami.

It is well-known that open source companies consider ITEXPO an important event and one where they come to meet service providers, resellers and other companies looking to deploy open-source solutions. This news solidifies TMC's commitment to open source as a solid choice for companies looking to not only purchase today's solutions but to resell and develop tomorrow's breakthrough products.

Mark Spencer, founder and CTO of Digium and original creator of Asterisk had this to say about this news. "Hosting Digium|Asterisk World at ITEXPO East 2009 will allow us to share the vision and power of Asterisk with a broad set of customers who might not be familiar with open source. By giving them their first taste of Asterisk, we empower them to not only save money but to use and create new technologies that never existed before."

For my part, I salute Mark and his company which has brought open source communications so far, so quickly.

I have been getting more and more questions on where the communications market stands in light of macroeconomic conditions. It is a constant in my frequent conversations. In most cases, when I get this question, people tell me their business is good but they wonder if the housing market problems will trickle down into the telecom space.

The answer is simply, I do believe there is risk to all sectors of the global economy. For the first time in my memory, US and other political leaders have come on TV and mentioned the term global crisis on a frequent basis.

Please note this post was written approximately one week ago -- before the news of the bailout bill failing began to spread fear in the financial markets. Stay tuned to learn how the financial markets will affect communications and technology.

Many people asked me recently at ITEXPO West 2008 Los Angeles, what I see happening in the communications market from an economic perspective. Let's just say that on the way to the show, I was watching TV as the stock market plunged and there was talk of another Great Depression. When I got to the show I must say I was unclear how the financial markets would affect the communications space.

Huge news out of Astricon 2008 -- Skype and Digium will begin to collaborate. I will have more details soon but for now this likely means easy integration between phone systems based on Asterisk and the Skype network. I have talked about Skype trunking before -- this news will likely mean that there will be native Skype trunking in all Asterisk boxes.

This could potentially give these open source platforms a huge advantage over companies like Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, Etc where an external Skype trunking gateway will be needed to communicate with the Skype community.

This can be huge news for telecom markets as the price to make calls will drop substantially from Skype devices and software to Asterisk-based open-source PBXs.

One other point -- the Skype gateway market may now become based on Asterisk appliances/software. This means we could see more interoperability between the Skype network and SIP and other standards.